{"nrhp_refnum":"73000280","name":"Billerica Town Common District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Bounded by Cummings St., Concord Rd., and Boston Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Billerica","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.55910900000006,"lon":-71.26831202468281,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-08-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district of about twenty acres in Billerica, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, centered on a triangular two-acre town common and the houses, churches and civic buildings facing it along Concord Road, Cummings Street and Boston Road. Buildings date from 1796 to the late 19th century.","why_significant":"The district holds some of Billerica's most significant buildings and, with the common, records the town's development and the role of the common in the growth of a New England town. The area was the first settled in the town (1655) and the existing buildings show a wide range of New England vernacular architecture from 1790 to 1900. Standouts are the Federal Dr. Bowers House, the reconstructed First Parish Church and the Victorian Gothic Bennett Public Library.","narrative":"Billerica's town common and the buildings around it form a district of about twenty acres. The common is a triangular green of just over two acres, with a bandstand from 1890 and a granite watering trough from 1881. Around it stand Federal houses from 1796, 1804 and 1811, Greek Revival churches and a house, an Italianate Masonic Temple, a Second Empire manse, a Victorian Gothic library and an 1895 brick town hall. The site was the earliest part of town to be settled, in 1655, when land was set aside as a common. Early meetinghouses stood here, and the local militia mustered on the common before marching toward Concord in April 1775. After the Revolution, prominent residents built substantial houses nearby, including the physician who built the house at 1 Concord Road. The district is valued for its varied architecture and for the common's continuity as the town's center.","period_of_significance":"1790-1900","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, High Victorian Gothic, and Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition marked as good and altered; the property is partly occupied and in public and private ownership, with uses including government, commercial, educational, religious, private residence and town common.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.10657-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/5/7959/63795905/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/73000280.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000280/0e1259d59e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000280/0e1259d59e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Parish_Church_across_Town_Common,_Billerica_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Parish_Church_across_Town_Common,_Billerica_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795905","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billerica_Town_Common_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4911791"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/billerica-town-common-district-73000280/"}